HISTORIC EVIDENCE & CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH FOR BURGESS STREAM, CENTRAL CHELMSFORD
1855 – This is the only known photograph of Anne Knight. She would be 69 years old in this image, 7 years before her death at the age of 76. Image: Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
One of the most historic & resonant as well as the earliest buildings on the site is the Grade II listed Anne Knight building, a former Friends Meeting House from 1824. Named after one of Chelmsford’s most distinguished women, Anne Knight 1786 – 1862.
I have based my creative response and interventions broadly on the following:
1. The life and times of Anne Knight, which may represent her achievement & legacy. This can be portrayed as a narrative using quotations attributed to her and / or synonyms and metaphors, which may be suggestive of her character & personality.
2. The history of the area bounded by the current site development.
3. Movement through & use of the site as suggested by the current designs, which could explore connectivity, way finding & a triumvirate of new public spaces to expl
4. Nature, landscape and geography as suggested by the adjacency to Central Park and the vista from the upper levels of the flight of steps from The Place.
5. The building & ‘genesis’ of a new Community on the site.
6. Human traits, conditions and aspirations as described or suggested by metaphors and synonyms for landscape & community.
Anne Knight was a Quaker and a stalwart Anti Abolitionist, one of very few women to attend the World Anti Slavery Convention meeting held in London in 1840. The treatment of women at this pivotal event, when those attending were asked to sit behind a curtain and were not allowed to contribute to the debate, was to shape her views and future correspondence on women’s rights & led to her publishing what is considered to be the very first leaflet on women’s suffrage in 1847. I was inspired to use her journey as an anchor for the creative response partly for her stoical and focussed achievements during her lifetime and partly as her humanity and sense of purpose in fighting publicly for equality & the rights of others in community, was matched by her familial and personal correspondence and relationship with her seven siblings and parents.
1855 – This is the only known photograph of Anne Knight. She would be 69 years old in this image, 7 years before her death at the age of 76. Image: Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
“By tortured millions, By the divine redeemer, Enfranchise Humanity, Bid the Outraged World, BE FREE”. Anne Knight 1855
I have also responded to the immediate and contemporary physical landscape plans and architectural form to explore the flow & rhythm of the site, exploring how the various elements & spaces developed for the project may be navigated and used by residents & pedestrians. This triumvirate of public spaces, currently known as The Gate, The Place & The Crossing, create between them a varied and exciting experience for the user. As the hub of a new community, the communal areas of the development are important places for people to take ownership of. There are busy, bustling retail anchored spaces, quiet spaces for reflection or for sitting with friends and family under the shade of trees and fluid pedestrian routes and vistas for traversing & looking out beyond the site.
Image: Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, LondoDetail: Commemorative group portrait of the World Anti Slavery Convention held in London in June 1840, by the artist Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841. National Portrait GalleryKnight Family Papers. Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
Above: A section from a handwritten letter to Anne Knight from her sister Sophie, describing the moment she saw a comet, ‘comit’.
Pages from the notebook of Job Knight left to Anne after his death in 1819. She turned the notebook upside down and used the back for her own notes. – often in shorthand. -Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, LondonJob Knight used this notebook to record various things, including lists of synonyms. He worked as a Cabinet Maker of St Martins, Ludgate, London & died in 1819 aged 31. Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, LondonJob Knight – Notebook – “the last 8 or 9 years of my life have been wormwood & gall…” Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, LondonJob Knight – Notebook – Detail: Job worked as a Cabinet Maker in London & died in 1821 aged 31
Anne Knight turned this copy of a ‘Plea for Woman: ..” by Mrs Hugo Reid into a notebook via many annotations and additions of paper, colour notes and printed tracts.
Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
Anne Knight turned this copy of a ‘Plea for Woman: ..” by Mrs Hugo Reid into a notebook via many annotations and additions of paper, colour notes and printed tracts.
Anne Knight turned this copy of a ‘Plea for Woman: ..” by Mrs Hugo Reid into a notebook via many annotations and additions of paper, colour notes and printed tracts.
Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
Anne Knight turned this copy of a ‘Plea for Woman: ..” by Mrs Hugo Reid into a notebook via many annotations and additions of paper, colour notes and printed tracts. Here she has pressed a flower – most likely a daisy.
Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
Anne Knight turned this copy of a ‘Plea for Woman: ..” by Mrs Hugo Reid into a notebook via many annotations and additions of paper, colour notes and printed tracts.
Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
The image above shows the sale catalogue in regard to the Estate of the late Sophie Knight, Anne’s younger sister. Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, Friends House, Euston Rd, London
More images in today from Hardscape detailing the manufacture of the large platform seat for Central Chelmsford.
Vinyl plotted with the design is applied to the granite slab before sandblasting.AS the process continues, the vinyl is stripped away to reveal areas to be sandblasted.The process is a skilled & precise one for Vlad to undertake. The slabs cannot be moved easily, so he has to move around the work.
The sandblast is no more than 2mm deep across the slab. The fine honed finish on the surface will be retained under the vinyl which still covers the letters.
The fine work is excellent. All the vinyl stencil which has been plotted and cut has to be weeded out by hand for sandblasting.The four granite slabs which make up the large platform seat awaiting more sandblasting outside.
Granite slabs completed. When wet the granite will become almost uniformly dark. As the surface dries, the images and text will begin to reveal themselves. The areas with no sandblasting or shallow detail will dry out first.
In researching this project I have engaged with many individuals, institutions and stakeholders in order to decipher the history of our site. I am immensely grateful to all those who contributed.
The purpose of taking this approach to research is twofold.
Firstly it fosters a sense of common ownership around the project. People have given their information and experience freely in order to see these improvement be made.
Secondly, the collaborative exchange of information has enriched the debate around the design outcomes, This can only be a positive step forward. The project now on the ground is all the better for this.
Thanks to all who have contributed thus far. The following is not an exclusive list – & I am adding to it all the time !
The following set of images – all credited – have been used to inform and influence the design process. They formed a brilliant & illuminating part of the contextual research, which has influenced the design process throughout the project – & which is quite frankly – ongoing …the research never stops !
‘The Walls of Southampton’ an engraving by WH Bartlett 1809 – 1854. The work was made as an illustration for the book ‘The Ports, Harbours, Watering Places and Coast Scenery of Great Britain’. 1842, by William Finden, Edward Francis Finden & William Henry Bartlett
Sailing near the walls of Southampton and the West Quay area on a stormy day in late Victorian times. The embayment (West Bay) is an old meander of the River Test, flooded by the rising sea levels of the Holocene (current epoch) following the last ice age. This image is a wide angle view from near the present site of Southampton Central Station and looks out towards Town Quay – the site of the West Quay Shopping Centre & John Lewis. Ian West & Tonya West 2008
The image ties in wonderfully well with a description of a great storm in West Bay in 1893
An extract from the Parish of St Peters Church, Commercial Road. Magazine No 5 January 1894 by Rev H C Percival
“We have had our share of the late terrific storm, as well as much of the sunshine of Christmas. It is not often that St Peters Parish and people see the usually placid Southampton water assume the appearance of the Bay of Biscay. But on Tuesday the 12th December (1893), we actually had a wreck on the shore in this parish and waves did much damage along the Western Shore. Our Church too suffered much more damage than is generally known. When the gale was at its height, about 3pm, some slates were carried a distance of about 3o yards and hurled with terrific force through one of the small stained windows of the Chancel. The iron guard outside was beat like thin wire and the lead & glass of the window were driven in and the window was smashed into thousands of fragments…one of our beautiful churchyard evergreen Oaks has been sadly damaged and now presents a very one sided appearance. In front of our school, slates were sticking in the ground, as though some giant from the opposite side of Commercial Road had been playing quoits all the afternoon”.
This view of around 1810 looking out over West Bay towards the City walls is thought to be almost on the site of the present day Costa Coffee shop opposite the Station Main Entrance. Image: Collection of John SilmanA view east towards the city with St Peters Church in the background. This drawing by Philip Brannon shows the shoreline around Blechynden at some point soon after the coming of the railway in 1847. The image was accompanied by the words…”a stroll along the beach was enhanced by a glimpse of a steam engine, where the line passed close to the shore”. St Peters Church on Commercial Rd was completed in 1842. Image by permission of Southampton City Council Local Studies and Maritime Collection.
A reference to Blechynden before the coming of the railways. Newspaper cutting image by permission of Southampton City Council Local Studies and Maritime CollectionA reference to the area known as Blechynden before the coming of the railways. Newspaper cutting image by permission of Southampton City Council Local Studies and Maritime CollectionA view towards Millbrook from the bridge over the railway tunnel dated around 1880. The original Blechynden or West Station in Southampton can be seen on the right. Image: Bert Moody Collection / Cope Collection
This image of the down side of the track during high tide in 1890 shows just how close the train passed to the shoreline and the waters edge. Weymouth Terrace can be seen in the background. The footbridge is still in use today ! Image: Bert Moody Collection.
This was the new Southampton West Station opened on 1st November 1895. It had an 82 foot clock tower & had been built upon nursery gardens. Image: Bert Moody Collection
‘In the 1890’s Southampton Corporation sold an area of land for the construction of the new station. The land involved was partly field & partly shoreline and was therefore subject to tidal flooding’. ‘The new station was opened on 1st November 1895. The clock tower had been a landmark long before the Civic Centre was built in 1931. It was damaged by bombing in WWII and finally demolished to make way for the new station and Overline House in 1966/67.
This image of the old station south side – down side – is now adjacent to the A3024 Western Esplanade road. It was once next to the water’s edge. The sea wall is in the foreground. Date unknown – post 1895 – Image: Bert Moody Collection.Looking from Town Quay across West Bay towards Blechynden circa 1890’s / 1900. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily EchoWest Bay, Southampton, taken from the city walls between 1895 – 1912 looking towards Blechynden. St Peter’s Church can be see on the horizon. The waters edge is clearly defined by coping stone and paving detail. Image by kind permission of the Southampton Daily Echo.
This post-1910 image taken from Weymouth Terrace, looks towards Blechynden with the station clocktower clearly visible. To the right of this is the large brick built Emperia Building of around 1905. This first housed a mineral water factory IDRIS & Co, but by 1913 the building was used by BAT, British American Tobacco. This operation closed in 1921 & the building was destroyed by bombing in 1940. Parts of the building are still clearly visible today. Image: Bert Moody CollectionThis photograph of 1909 is a view from the water’s edge towards the down side line of Southampton Station. Image: John Alsop Collection
This wonderfully intimate image of 1910, shows people and horses enjoying the waters edge just outside the station. Views are across West Bay to the city walls and Town Quay. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily EchoDetail: This image of 1910, shows people and horses enjoying the waters edge just outside the station. Views are across West Bay to the city walls and Town Quay. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily Echo
A cold and somewhat bleak image of Southampton West Station date unknown, but probably around 1910. To the right can just been seen the signage for the West Station Hotel on Blechynden Terrace. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily Echo.An Edwardian view of Southampton West Station taken between 1901 & 1910. Horse drawn carriages await passengers. Image: John Alsop CollectionA colour tinted postcard view of Southampton Station at high tide in 1905. I have added the place names . Note the tall brick chimney of the Power Station, built in 1903 & demolished in the 1970’s. Image: John Alsop Collection
A more detailed black & white image, probably taken from the same postcard image as above – in 1905, showing the Station Concourse and environs including Emperia Buildings & the Power Station. Image: Bert Moody Collection
A Postcard image from 1911 of a Station guard or Station Master standing on the up line at Southampton Station. Image: Bert Moody CollectionThis image of Southampton Station south side taken from the water’s edge is actually taken from a newspaper cutting, date unknown, but around the turn of the century. The steps and bridge crossing on the far right of the image are still in use today. Image: Bert Moody Collection.Steam train passing through from 1936. The spire of St Peters Church is just visible on the left & the footbridge, still in use today to cross the tracks is on the far right. Image: Bert Moody Collection
An aerial view of Southampton Station looking down track towards Millbrook, probably taken from the Emperia Building on Blechynden Terrace in 1931. The reclamation of West Bay had already begun as you can see top left , for the expansion of the Western Docks. Image: Bert Moody Collection / Southampton Daily EchoThis aerial view across West Bay looking towards Millbrook & Southampton Station, shows the extent of the reclamation works underway during the construction & expansion of the Western Docks in 1929. Image: Dave Marden Collection – Associated British PortsThis is a map & plan of proposed and future dock expansion in West Bay which occurred through the 1930’s. Image: Dave Marden Collection – Associated British Ports1928 saw the building of the Mayflower Theatre – known as The Empire Theatre. The Power Station of 1903 and the Lido from 1854 had begun the reclamation of land from West Bay, which was then taken to another level entirely by the docks expansion of the 1930’s. Southampton Station can be see in the centre of this image. Image: SCC Local & Maritime Aerial Collection.This image of 1928 from the Local & Maritime Aerial Collection of Southampton City Council, has been annotated by me to show the key buildings of our project area which is bounded by a red line.
A. St Peters Church, Commercial Road. Built 1845
B. Victoria Brewery, Commercial Road founded between 1863 & 1871 by Andrew Barlow, a business man & philanthropist who died in 1904 aged 84, the richest man to be buried in Southampton Cemetery!
C. Southampton Station of 1895
D. Emperia Building – Warehouses. Built around 1905, bombed out in 1940
E. Empire Theatre – now the Mayflower, built 1928
F. Power Station, built 1903
G. Kingsbridge Grammar School on Kingsbridge Lane
H. Blechynden Terrace & the Station forecourt
Cropped & annotated image of Commercial Road, Southampton in 1965. SCC Local Studies and Maritime Aerial Collection. Commercial Rd with Wyndham Court under construction.Cropped image of 1967. Looking north – this images gives a perfect west to east aerial view across the project site which is outlined in red – showing the construction of Overline House & Wyndham Court, between the railway line and Commercial Rd. The Civic Centre is at the top right hand side. SCC Local Studies and Maritime Aerial Collection.Cropped Image of 1967 showing the construction of Overline House and Wyndham Court. Blechynden Terrace runs vertically through the centre of this image, with Commercial Rd at the far right. Image: SCC Local Studies & Maritime Aerial Collection.Architects visualisation drawing for Wyndham Court, circa 1966. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily EchoSouthampton Station Clocktower of 1895 during the final days of its demolition in 1966 to make way for Overline House. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily EchoLooking towards Southampton Station, circa 1966 – probably taken from the Mayflower Theatre. Hill Street is the road on the right hand side – the street was completely demolished & is now under Wyndham Court. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily Echo
An aerial image of the site around the Station, looking east towards the Civic Centre at top of image. The image was probably for planning purposes and shows the future phased redevelopment of the land between Commercial Road and south of the railway lines. Easy to see how much of this site was bombed out during WWII. These sites were left untouched until the mid sixties, when the site was redeveloped. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily Echo
This image, looking east up Commercial Road, Southampton, towards the Mayflower (Gaumont) Theatre and Civic Centre, during the construction of Wyndham Court – circa 1967 / 1968. Image by kind permission of Southampton Daily Echo
Hardscape have just completed sandblasting the large granite platform seat for my project at Burgess Springs, Central Chelmsford. They sent over a couple of images yesterday. Looking pretty good from here – really want to see more images !
Hard to convey to convey the size of this piece of work – each slab is approx. 1200mm x 1200mm.
I think they have done a great job – cant wait to see it installed on site.
Image: Hardscape – Large Granite Platform Seat in 4 sections, each 1200mm x 1200mmImage: Hardscape – Large Platform Seat in 4 sections, each 1200mm x 1200mm
One of the most striking & singular elements of the interpretation project at Burgess Springs, Central Chelmsford is the large granite platform seat.
This feature is some 2.4m square & manufactured in 4 large units. The surface is being sandblasted with images and text, both inspired by the writing of Anne Knight of Chelmsford.
The granite artwork is being project managed by Nigel Hudson, Masonry Product Manager for Hardscape at their premises at Long Marston, Stratford Upon Avon. The sandblasting is being carried out by Masonry Manager, Vladimir Zonozicka. We have met several times to discuss and sample the process & the collaboration has in turn, resulted in a much more interesting peice of work.
The image shows the light coloured vinyl stencil applied to the granite surface. Some layers of sandblasting have already been achieved & these have the vinyl stripped away to reveal the sandblasted surface. The deepest blasting is no more than 2mm, but the effects can be striking, particularly when wet or in direct sunlight. Image: HardscapeThe work is manufactured from a grey granite with a honed finish. The early artworks suggest a green colour – which was influenced by the Royal Green granite used for some paving detailing – this is not the case. Christopher Tipping for Central ChelmsfordDraft artwork in black & white with some text highlighted in red for the attention of the manufacturer, Hardscape. Christopher Tipping for Central Chelmsford
Draft artwork in black & white with some text highlighted in red for the attention of the manufacturer, Hardscape. Christopher Tipping for Central Chelmsford
Granite slab awaiting sandblasting by Hardscape. Christopher Tipping for Central Chelmsford
Thursday 13th November 2014saw the last black basalt slab installed on Blechynden Terrace to complete the ‘Canal Shore’artwork installation.
Left to right – Martin Miller and Jay Geary of Balfour Beatty, who have together installed all the 205 linear metres of the kerb edge artwork – which was manufactured and inlaid with text by Hardscape – along Blechynden Terrace and the forecourt of Central Station.
These were the brilliant guys on the ground who installed the Canal Shore works – Martin Miller & Jay Geary of Balfour Beatty. Image: Wilson Massie
This almost – but not quite – completes the Phase 1 works for the Southampton Station Quarter North project being delivered by Balfour Beatty Living Places for Southampton City Council. This project is one of seven ‘Very Important Projects’ (VIP’S) & part of its City Centre Master Plan which will see one of Southampton’s most important gateways transformed into ‘an exciting arrival experience fit for a major city.’
Some more images of works in progress:
Image: Wilson Massie for Southampton Station Quarter NorthImage: Wilson Massie for Southampton Station Quarter NorthChristopher Tipping, project artist on site –
The text just visible along the kerb edge reads: ‘this route was known as THE STRAND, ‘strata super Strondham’, …the street by the shore…’ Christopher Tipping
The site, adjacent to the shoreline of the Test Estuary has always been a point of confluence. The main route West in & out of the city ran along the shoreline and was known as The Strand. At a point marked by Achards Bridge, which replaced an ancient ford across the Rollesbrook Stream which enters the River Test at this point, the city boundary with Millbrook was established.
Today this site is near to the entrance to Southampton Central Station. You may cross the Rollesbrook Stream yourself each time you visit the station. The station is the gateway to the city & a critical hub & interchange.
The individual lines of texts are to be set out adjacent to the carriageway on the south side of Blechynden Terrace at site specific points along the ‘Canal Shore’ feature kerb line, & reveal in their expression something of the history and use of the local area. It is not a linear ‘narrative’ and has no specific start or finish. It will engage with people as and when they encounter the words. Some words and phrases have their origin in fact and are ‘on the record’, whilst some is anecdotal and ‘remembered’.
The black basalt has inset light grey granite. When wet – as today was – the contracts is at it’s greatest.
The text on these slabs is part of the following line – ‘The historic shoreline was here in 1846…the north shore of the River Test Estuary’
The 1846 Large Folio Royal Engineers Map held in the Southampton City Council Archive, is wonderfully accurate & detailed. It shows the planned route out over the mudflats of the unfinished ‘Dorchester Railway’. The shoreline was at this time still north of this point, with the high water mark reaching to what is now, the southern footpath of Blechynden Terrace & Southbrook Road. The historic curve of the Bay here is thought to be a meander of the ancient Solent River system. SCC Libraries & Archive
‘Lost: August Kenzler, Age 43, Storekeeper on the RMS Titanic lived at 21 Blechynden Terrace’
August Kenzler was lost when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage. He was one of seven crewmen (from more than 720 from Southampton) who lived in the area bounded by our project.
John Henry Stagg – Steward – 1st Class – Lost – 66 Commercial Road
August Kenzler – Storekeeper – Age 43 – Lost – 21 (12) Blechynden Terrace
Michael Stafford – Greaser – Age 37 – No 4 Southbrook Road
Walter Edward Saunders – Trimmer – Age 25 – No1 Suffolk Sq (off Southbrook Road)
Long – Trimmer – Age 28 – No 19 Sidford Street –
William Logan Gwinn – Age 37 – No 4 Commercial Road
’70 years on…’ CENTRAL CONCOURSE SCREEN FOR THE JUBILEE BUILDING, MUSGROVE PARK HOSPITAL
I recently came across the work of the photographer, John Seaman, who had been commissioned by the main contractor for the Jubilee Building BAM to make a photographic record. Very lucky for me, that he has a great eye for catching the spirit & intent of the tensile artwork and its relationship to the building and interior space. ’70 years on…’ was a collaboration with Architen Landrell & VGL Vinyl Graphics & was commissioned by Musgrove Park Hospital Capital Projects Office & Art for Life
’70 years on…’ Tensile Artwork, Central Concourse, Jubilee Building. Image: John Seaman PhotographImage: John Seaman PhotographyDetail of transparent layering of the tensile screen. Image: John Seaman Photograph
The Central Concourse Screen ’70 years on…’ was created to celebrate the delivery of the Jubilee Surgical Building & the 70th Anniversary of Musgrove Park Hospital. The project was Heritage Lottery funded.
The work is presented as a digitally printed tensile fabric screen made of 26 individually printed panels. It is supported by a bespoke lightweight aluminium & stainless steel double-sided ladder frame 21m x 1.8m, which is itself hung from 3 steel supporting columns of the Central Concourse building. The design & manufacture of the tensile screen and its method of digital printing balance well with the content of the work & its evocation of the past to present a contemporary artwork in a 21st Century Hospital.
The artwork is presented as a landscape, which, other than at each end, where curved steel panels protect the structure, the artwork can be viewed as a continual narrative sequence. However, this is not a timeline or a linear narrative, which has to be viewed in a particular way or from a particular viewpoint. The observer can simply roll up at any point along its 42m length and begin a journey or their own.
Text was employed in the design as both an aid to the visual narrative & to emphasize the importance of the hospital’s archive collection in this 70th Anniversary year. It also recalls individual and collective voices from the last 70 years. The work done by Louise Donovan, an archivist working with staff and patients past and present to recall their experiences working here has been included in “Sensing our Past”. 70 years of Musgrove Park Hospital’, published in 2012
Words have been used to draw with, or to conjure up the dynamic energy of the hospital. It is presented in a variety of ways, for example, following the line of the Galmington Stream, which runs along the boundary of the Hospital, or as a gestural expression, such as the whirlwind vortex drawing, or a simple circle of fine white text.
They are an eclectic and often mis-matched set of words, evocative of half remembered memories, anecdotes and stories, (as opposed to reproducing hard facts and figures within a fixed timeline). There are perhaps more ‘distant’ voices from early in the life of the hospital, particularly from it’s wartime experience, but I feel this is the way with memory – recall is distant and suggestive of the ‘good old days’.
Some elements within the artwork are obviously and easily recognizable, such as the iconic Eisenhower Tree & Galmington Stream, whilst others are abstract and elusive. A great number of the references are archival in origin, such as the colours, which were influenced by boxes of medical artifacts, some in the original packaging.
Bunches of flowers appear from between the seam joints, which evoke the Lily of the Valley presented to HM The Queen Mother or flowers given by visitors, which were held in vases attached to columns in the Nightingale wards.
The photographic archive too, which contains hundreds of images of staff at work and celebrating events such as Christmas & retirements, as well as visits by Royalty, or the American World Heavyweight Boxer, Joe Louis and the entertainer Bob Hope, who both visited the Hospital during World War II.
My own personal experience of being a part of this Hospital community since 2005, when I was appointed Lead Artist on the 10 year Hospital development programme is also evident in magery influenced by past projects undertaken here.
Image: John Seaman PhotographImage: John Seaman PhotographyImage: John Seaman PhotographyImage: John Seaman PhotographImage: John Seaman PhotographImage: John Seaman PhotographImage: John Seaman PhotographImage: John Seaman PhotographyImage: John Seama
I have been associated with Musgrove Park Hospital since 2005, when I was appointed as Lead Artist for External Spaces, a role specifically commissioned to influence the design process of the Hospital Trust’s 10 year development plan, particularly in regard to external landscape. It resulted in a Design Visiondocument issued in 2006. This project was managed on behalf of the Trust, by the Art for Life Co-ordinator, Bronwen Gwillim, with whom I collaborated until 2012, when she left the post.
This new build project was managed by Steven Power, Senior Project Manager, Capital Projects Office on behalf of Taunton & Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. The building was delivered by BAM Construction and designed by BDP Architects. It opened in April 2014.
I was commissioned for this particular project back in January 2010. The proposals for ‘Murmuration’, stood alongside other work I was asked to undertake on the project during this period which included:
The patterning, colour and proportion of the zinc panelled external elevations of the new building.
The 70th Anniversary Central Concourse Screen artwork, which certainly needs a better title than this ! See: http://christophertipping.co.uk/category/central-concourse-musgrove-park-hospital/
Hoardings artwork for the new building during its 2 years on site. Some images posted below.
Creative collaboration & input into the E Tree Panel Project, which used the timber from the iconic Eisenhour Tree planted during WWII (which had to be removed to enable the new build) to create a wall based artwork for the interior of the building.
The North West patterned zinc elevation with laser cut steel panels. Image: Taunton FabricationsThe north west elevation and main entrance as seen from the adjacent graveyard. Image: Taunton Fabrications
We now have a schedule agreed and are working to issue draft artwork for comment and hopefully, approval by this time next week.
Detail: draft artwork –
It was agreed that the principle we should follow is to develop a highly visual & primarily figurative narrative, which also provides a privacy screen between the users of the ward rooms and the external courtyards. The courtyard landscapes are brand new, with ground level put to grass and no planting at height to provide cover or privacy screening. This has however provided the opportunity to create a new and imaginary landscape, which bridges the gap between figurative and recognisable details and structures from the external landscape, alongside abstract and original forms and patterns found within the artwork.
The works are to be digitally printed onto optically clear vinyl in layers of opaque and transparent white, with some added colour. The attention to detail will be focussed on a horizontal band across the mid section of the glazing screen to provide privacy. The top section will be left clear, so that uninterrupted views of the sky can be had. We are working closely with Guardian Window Film to manufacture & install the work.
Detail: draft artwork development –
These images are simply the first steps in creating a visual language and narrative for the project. The artwork is being developed as a long rectangular landscape – as a view through a window – . Each of the 10 ward rooms – each with a window, will be detailed with a section of this work, to give the appearance that each room has a unique identity and view of its own.
Detail from sketchbooksDetail form sketchbooksDetail: draft artwork in black & white
The artwork draft above shows the printed artwork as shades and layers of opaque white. The black areas will show as clear glass in the final works.
Detail: draft artwork – Mock up of vinyl application on the glazing screen in one of the ward rooms.
There are 10 small one & two bed ward rooms arranged in two ward blocks within the new hospital by Nightingale Architects. The rooms are full of natural light and the interior colour schemes are muted and calm, with the odd spot of brighter colour, such as the chair. The artwork manifestation will respond to this scheme. The views through the windows are now partially obscured, providing a degree of privacy for the user, whilst also maintaining sufficient clear glass to allow natural light and changing weather conditions to be seen.
Detail: Draft ArtworkDetail: Iconography has been developed for the project using drawings of leaves and branching structures to create original & imagined plants. These are not botanical illustrations, rather, an impression of a landscape imagined.Detail: IconographyDetail: IconographyDetail: Draft artwork for 3 x Chrysanthemums – various textures and transparenciesDetail: draft artwork
Works are well underway by the Ashfield Group to manufacture and supply the artwork step details to the project. The double height steps in York Stone are being inset with a darker granite text detail set into the face of the riser, which is part of the art interpretation on site. These double height steps will also have a slatted timber top, which creates ad hoc seating within the main sequence of steps at the southern end of the site. The timber will also carry cnc routed text.
Individual water jet cut granite letters are inset into York Stone, which has had the word already cut by water jet as a negative space. Image by Ashfield GroupThe letters are cut from granite tiles. Image by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupThe finished step block with negative text space awaiting granite letters to be inset. Image by Ashfield GroupFinished ! Image by Ashfield Group
